1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to microphone arrays, and in particular, to defect detection of a microphone array utilized in an audio device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microphone arrays are widely used in audio processing apparatuses for distinguishing desired audio signals from ambient noises. During ordinary usage, however, one or more microphones within a microphone array may be defective. As known, audio signals received by a microphone array are sent to a digital signal processor (DSP) for processing, such as a beam forming process or noise reduction process. If one microphone within the microphone array is defective, the beam forming process may render unpredictable results, whereby the audio quality would be degraded. Conventionally, there is no efficient method to detect that a microphone in a microphone array may be defective. As a result, as the number of microphones in a microphone array increases, the possibility for one of the microphones to be defective also increases. Also, undetected defective microphones, with even minor defects, may negatively degrade microphone arrays due in part to undetermined microphone functions. For such a reason, it is desirable to implement a defect detection mechanism in a microphone array to adaptively adjust the microphone array based on the functions of microphones therein.